Utilization of efficient low-cost poultry feeding systems, which allow poultry and the like to be raised from inception to harvest with a minimum amount of time and effort, is a prerequisite to economic survival in the business of raising poultry. An important component of such poultry feeding systems are the poultry feeder assemblies that present the feed to the poultry.
Operation of one known type of poultry feeding system, for instance, commences with a supply of feed being conveyed from a storage hopper, through a series of transport conduits and ultimately into individual poultry feeder pan assemblies, which are readily accessible to the feeding poultry crop. An example of a feeder assembly that has been successful in connection with such a poultry feeding system is the feeder assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,026, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The poultry feeder assembly of the '026 patent includes a dome-shaped feeder body contoured to prevent poultry from roosting upon it and a feeder tube extending through an uppermost surface of the dome-shaped body to operatively connect with a feed transport conveyor system. Feed supplied by the transport conveyor falls into the feeder tube and is directed through a feed opening at the bottom of the dome-shaped body and into a pan of the feeder assembly which is disposed below the lowermost edges of both the dome-shaped body and feeder tube. The outer periphery of the pan, in combination with the outer wall of the dome-shaped body, forms a limited annular poultry feeding area accessible to a large number of feeding poultry.
Releasable and adjustable engagement between the pan and the remaining structure is facilitated by circumferentially-spaced wing members formed integral with and extending outwardly of the dome-shaped feeder body. The distal end of these wing members are provided with a plurality of closely-spaced fingers which can be adjustably positioned to interlock with a corresponding arrangement of flange members provided on an annular lip or rim portion of the pan to incrementally adjust the size of the feed opening. Utilization of materials with sufficient resilient flexibility to form the pan member of the poultry feeder assembly allows the feed system operator to manually release and adjustably position the fingers relative to the pan member, and thereby adjust the size of the feed opening, without the aid of any tool. Thus, the feeder can be easily adjusted at its point of use to accommodate a variety of different-sized birds and to adapt to a varying range of feed flow characteristics.